Get inspired by the Hero Next Door
How helping others helps you
Heroes are made, not born. The Hero Next Door podcast is about ordinary people who take action to make the world a better place. In each episode, an everyday hero tells their own inspiring story. Then, an expert offers science-based ideas and strategies to help you develop your inner hero and become your best self.
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Podcast episodes
Episode 1
TITLE: How to help young people and adults identify a purpose and act on it
HERO: Tiberio Malaiu
EXPERT: Dr. Kendall Cotton-Bronk
Tiberio started an initiative to repair discarded phones and give them to kids who need internet access to get an education. Kendall talks about Tiberio's initiative as an example of how youth develop a sense of purpose. Youth today are facing enormous global challenges. Kendall's ideas of how to navigate those challenges and find a personal purpose can help anyone who wants to strengthen their own sense of purpose and meaning.
Episode 2
TITLE: Why humility is a good thing and how to develop it
HERO: Chantal Thomas
EXPERT: Dr. Pelin Kesebir
Chantal has worked to help indigenous people for years. Notice her humility as she connects with those people to listen and learn from them. See how those connections inspire her. Pelin then tells us how humility relates to happiness. Learn what humility is and is not, and how being humble contributes to our relationships. Find out how to move toward your best self by cultivating your own humility.
Episode 3
TITLE: How media can be a positive force for developing adolescents’ and childrens’
moral reasoning
HERO: Jessica Tweed
EXPERT: Dr. Marina Krcmar
Jessica created Oscar’s Enemies, a community group that picks up trash. Her early awareness of trash came from watching Oscar the Grouch - who loved trash - on Sesame Street. Marina then helps understand how television, computer games, and social media can either help or hinder how children and adolescents think about moral issues. She highlights for us the possibilities and the pitfalls in helping kids develop strong moral reasoning skills.
Episode 1
TITLE: How to help young people and adults identify a purpose and act on it
HERO: Tiberio Malaiu
EXPERT: Dr. Kendall Cotton-Bronk
Tiberio started an initiative to repair discarded phones and give them to kids who need internet access to get an education. Kendall talks about Tiberio's initiative as an example of how youth develop a sense of purpose. Youth today are facing enormous global challenges. Kendall's ideas of how to navigate those challenges and find a personal purpose can help anyone who wants to strengthen their own sense of purpose and meaning.
Episode 2
TITLE: Why humility is a good thing and how to develop it
HERO: Chantal Thomas
EXPERT: Dr. Pelin Kesebir
Chantal has worked to help indigenous people for years. Notice her humility as she connects with those people to listen and learn from them. See how those connections inspire her. Pelin then tells us how humility relates to happiness. Learn what humility is and is not, and how being humble contributes to our relationships. Find out how to move toward your best self by cultivating your own humility.
Episode 3
TITLE: How media can be a positive force for developing adolescents’ and childrens’ moral reasoning
HERO: Jessica Tweed
EXPERT: Dr. Marina Krcmar
Jessica created Oscar’s Enemies, a community group that picks up trash. Her early awareness of trash came from watching Oscar the Grouch - who loved trash - on Sesame Street. Marina then helps understand how television, computer games, and social media can either help or hinder how children and adolescents think about moral issues. She highlights for us the possibilities and the pitfalls in helping kids develop strong moral reasoning skills.
Episode 1
TITLE: How to help young people and adults identify a purpose and act on it
HERO: Tiberio Malaiu
EXPERT: Dr. Kendall Cotton-Bronk
Tiberio started an initiative to repair discarded phones and give them to kids who need internet access to get an education. Kendall talks about Tiberio's initiative as an example of how youth develop a sense of purpose. Youth today are facing enormous global challenges. Kendall's ideas of how to navigate those challenges and find a personal purpose can help anyone who wants to strengthen their own sense of purpose and meaning.
Episode 2
TITLE: Why humility is a good thing and how to develop it
HERO: Chantal Thomas
EXPERT: Dr. Pelin Kesebir
Chantal has worked to help indigenous people for years. Notice her humility as she connects with those people to listen and learn from them. See how those connections inspire her. Pelin then tells us how humility relates to happiness. Learn what humility is and is not, and how being humble contributes to our relationships. Find out how to move toward your best self by cultivating your own humility.
Episode 3
TITLE: How media can be a positive force for developing adolescents’ and childrens’
moral reasoning
HERO: Jessica Tweed
EXPERT: Dr. Marina Krcmar
Jessica created Oscar’s Enemies, a community group that picks up trash. Her early awareness of trash came from watching Oscar the Grouch - who loved trash - on Sesame Street. Marina then helps understand how television, computer games, and social media can either help or hinder how children and adolescents think about moral issues. She highlights for us the possibilities and the pitfalls in helping kids develop strong moral reasoning skills.
Episode 4
TITLE: Thriving In a Changing World: How values and vitality drive us to meet challenges
HERO: Kim and Kayla Reid
EXPERT: Dr. Louise Hayes
The Heroes of today’s episode are Kim and Kayla Reid who run a community organization called On Rock. On Rock has never stopped changing in response to what its community needs. Starting with a place to buy affordable Christian rock, it grew to be a drop-in center for youth at risk, a food bank, a pay-what-you can café, and a thrift store all serving one of the poorest postal codes in Canada. Following Kim and Kayla’s story, Dr. Louise Hayes - author of What Makes You Stronger: How to Thrive in the Face of Change and Uncertainty Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy talks about values and vitality as the center of a model of thriving and change. Using the DNA-V model, Louise will help us understand how to thrive when our world is constantly changing.
Episode 5
TITLE: Volunteering: How volunteering helps the volunteer and what motivates people to do it
HERO: Sheila Laursen
EXPERT: Allison Russell, Ph.D
Sheila Laursen, a lifelong community organizer, established a community group that helps asylum seekers get a start on their lives in a new country. Following Sheila’s story, Professor Allison Russell - an expert on volunteering and civil society development - will discuss volunteering across the lifespan. Using Sheila’s story, she helps us understand what motivates both older and younger people to volunteer, what keeps them motivated, and how they benefit at different phases of life.
Episode 6
TITLE: Living less filtered lives. How appearance concerns and performing for social media interact to diminish our lives. And what to do about it.
HERO: Keisha and Teegan Simpson
EXPERT: Dr. Renee Engeln
Keisha and Teegan Simpson are twin sisters who started the Instagram account called Live Life Unfiltered. They wanted to reach out and talk about the negative impacts of social media and of curating our lives to post images. Starting with talking to their friends, they have now reached tens of millions of people. Dr. Renee Engeln is a Psychology Professor at Northwestern University and the author of Beauty Sick, a book about how the cultural obsession with appearance hurts girls and women. She joins us to discuss the idea of an unfiltered life. Her insights shine light on how culturally embedded our appearance concerns are.
Episode 1
TITLE: How to help young people and adults identify a purpose and act on it
HERO: Tiberio Malaiu
EXPERT: Dr. Kendall Cotton-Bronk
Tiberio started an initiative to repair discarded phones and give them to kids who need internet access to get an education. Kendall talks about Tiberio's initiative as an example of how youth develop a sense of purpose. Youth today are facing enormous global challenges. Kendall's ideas of how to navigate those challenges and find a personal purpose can help anyone who wants to strengthen their own sense of purpose and meaning.
Episode 2
TITLE: Why humility is a good thing and how to develop it
HERO: Chantal Thomas
EXPERT: Dr. Pelin Kesebir
Chantal has worked to help indigenous people for years. Notice her humility as she connects with those people to listen and learn from them. See how those connections inspire her. Pelin then tells us how humility relates to happiness. Learn what humility is and is not, and how being humble contributes to our relationships. Find out how to move toward your best self by cultivating your own humility.
Episode 3
TITLE: How media can be a positive force for developing adolescents’ and childrens’
moral reasoning
HERO: Jessica Tweed
EXPERT: Dr. Marina Krcmar
Jessica created Oscar’s Enemies, a community group that picks up trash. Her early awareness of trash came from watching Oscar the Grouch - who loved trash - on Sesame Street. Marina then helps understand how television, computer games, and social media can either help or hinder how children and adolescents think about moral issues. She highlights for us the possibilities and the pitfalls in helping kids develop strong moral reasoning skills.
Episode 7
TITLE: Helping teens to develop leadership skills.
HERO: Zoe Huml
EXPERT: Dr. Jamie Wu
Zoe is a young adult who founded the HIP Hero Club, an initiative to help high school students take social risks and become the kinds of heroes who speak up when they see things that are wrong. Jamie then discusses what it takes for youth to develop as prosocial leaders like Zoe. She highlights how adults can work with youth to decide the direction of programs, the kind of supports they need to offer and how adults sometimes need to step aside to allow youth not just to have the potential to lead but to be out front.
Episode 8
TITLE: Matt Langdon and the Heroic Imagination Project
HERO: Matt Langdon
Expert: Matt Langdon
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Matt Langdon is the President of the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP) and the author of The Hero Handbook. This episode describes that ways that we can develop our capacity to take risks when the world needs our help. Matt shows that it is possible to train heroes and to diminish the possibility that we will just stand by and let bad things happen. His stories of heroic action illustrate how the possibility of stepping forward can develop in all of us.
Say hello to the host
My name is Marilyn
Dr. Marilyn Fitzpatrick is our host for Hero Next Door. She is an experienced psychologist and a Professor Emerita at McGill University. Marilyn has a passionate commitment to living her values. She also has the vision to see the heroism in everyday people, and the research experience to identify outstanding experts. Marilyn created Hero Next Door because she is dedicated to helping people understand their true potential and become their best selves.
Nominate a Hero
Hero Next Door wants to share the inspiring stories of people who go out of their way to make the world a better place. Do you know someone like this? Are you someone like this?
Nominate a hero below. If selected, we will contact the hero and set up a podcast interview with Dr. Marilyn Fitzpatrick.